


About Dungeons and Dragons

by SonnenFlower



Series: Three Times Trouble [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Hermione Granger, Dragons, F/M, Hatchlings, Pre-Relationship, Protectiveness, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, or something like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28436781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonnenFlower/pseuds/SonnenFlower
Summary: How Charlie learned that three little dragons hatched in a dark dungeon can turn your life up side down in only one day.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Charlie Weasley
Series: Three Times Trouble [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158284
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30
Collections: DND Ladies Secret Santa Exchange





	About Dungeons and Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FirewhiskySoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirewhiskySoul/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, and I'm so sorry the smut wouldn't come, but I promise another smutsshot in this universe!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/gp/186947346@N07/W66F50)

International portkeying in and of itself was horribly disorientating, but appearing right in a battlefield really didn’t help it any. All the spells flying around paired with the smell of caged animals reminded him of a night some years back on a rave in Berlin after he had taken that funny drink someone had offered him. It was so strange how brains worked, Charlie had to admit later. If someone would have asked him what his association would be should he ever turn up on a battlefield without any notice, this would surely hadn’t been the one he picked.

Still, it took him only a split second until he jumped into gear, wand ready. Since he couldn’t figure out friend and foe right away his first worry was the animals. A quick look around had him sure that he was in some kind of dungeon filled with about any dangerous creature one could think of and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Hermione hadn’t originally chosen this place for his arrival. How she had managed to still let him turn up right here, needed to be determined later. Now was the time to do something to help those poor creatures until he could relocate them to a better place. 

Suddenly Hermione's voice sounded through the blasts of lights that had relocated to the left corner “Look you! This thing is trapped like it’s preserving the philosopher's stone!” 

The what now? At least he wasn’t the only one with strange associations in the face of battle. 

Since Hermione’s warning was a bit woolly he started with the stuff he could do from where he was, fixing a crack in a Water Dragons tank to his left, refuelling the fire of an ashwinder right in front of him, but when he turned around, every caution went out the window. There in the cell right behind him lay two dragons, an Antipodean Opaleye and a Chinese Fireball, and right there in the middle between them was a nest with three eggs in a strange colour combination of grey red and gold that indicated for both dragons to be the parents. 

Interbreeding dragons was not only a bad but a horrible and cruel idea. Not only did dragons only interbreed if they felt like it was their last resort of reproduction, which included horrible treatment of the creatures to conduct a surrounding that would even make it possible, but no one could predict which trait the dragons would inherit. And while he sprinted to the lifeless dragons he prayed, that he wasn’t risking his life for a hybrid, that loved living in populated areas and whose favourite food was human, because based on the parentage, that was definitely plausible.

While he reached the cell it somehow registered in the back of his mind that the explosions and light flashes had died down and were about to completely dissolve. Checking over the two dragons he found his worst fear confirmed, both of them were dead, and by what he could tell, not only for a few minutes. He didn’t know how, but with dragons that were as worn down as these two as little as a simple stunner could send them over the cliff of never waking up again. Burning inside with anger and hatred for people who reduced majestic creatures like dragons to whatever these sad remains were, he leaned down to check on the eggs.

The nest was still hot, so at least there was hope for the little dragons. Sure, they were most likely dangerous, but the crimes of humankind were not their fault, and Charlie would do anything to make it up to them.

“Sorry to bring you right into it. I wasn’t exactly sure where I’d be when you were scheduled to arrive, so I charmed your portkey to wherever I’d be. I didn’t exactly expect it to be a battlefield.”

Hermione was speaking so fast, Charlie wasn’t even sure his brain registered every word she said. So he decided not to ask HOW THE FUCK she had charmed a portkey destination to follow her. That girl just had no understanding of how outstanding she was. 

A cracking noise pulled him out of hit musing. Shit! That was not a movie he wanted to hear in the setting they were in right now.

“Hermione run!”

He was halfway out of the cell when he realised she wasn’t following him.

“Why?” And while Hermione was still asking Charlie saw their doom enfold right in front of them when the first of the eggs cracked.

“Too late.”

“What‘s too late? What’s going on Charlie?”

With that, the first egg opened and out fell a fiery red baby dragon with black opal eyes that didn’t seem to have a pupil at all. Still, its eyes roamed through the cell, lingering on the two dead dragons for a moment and then fixating on Hermione. Charlie wasn’t sure if she had already grasped the severity of their situation when the little dragon launched at her and curled around one of her legs.

“That’s exactly what I graft would happen. Congratulations Hermione, you are now the mother of at least one dragon.”

While he spoke though not only Hermione’s eyes were focused at him, but the little dragon also raised its head from Hermione’s shoes and focused at him as well. Better to keep some distance he decided, who knew how protective that little beast was about its mum.

Focused on the fiery red dragon in front of him, he had forgotten about the other two eggs for a moment. Something that should correct itself quite quickly when the next egg didn’t crack but blasted open and a milky white dragon landed right in front of him on the ground. Shaking its head and taking the cell in as its sibling had done, Charlie could see that this one had the bludgeoning red eyes and the fringe of spikes that was so typical for a Chinese fireball but instead of gold the spikes were in pure silvery colour. 

“Well hello there beautiful, you did scare yourself with your entry, didn’t you?” The pale dragon, who had just seemed to have found its sibling by Hermione’s side, turned back to him and in a fluid motion wrapped itself around him until its head rested on his shoulder. “Looks like I am a dragon dad now.”

“But, -” Hermione’s voice broke as if she didn’t know which of the probably million questions her head came up with she should ask first. „But Norbert never did this!”

„Norbert? Oh, you mean Hagrid's dragon. Yeah, Norberta is a Norwegian Ridgeback you see. They don’t tend to their young ones. They just place their egg or eggs in a hot spring and that is as much parental care as you can expect from a Ridgeback. Fireballs and Opaleyes on the other hand are a very different cup of tea. They are both known for their close family bonds. You see with Opaleyes the younglings choose a stepparent should they lose one by bonding with them sometimes even before the remaining parent has seen their new companion and fireballs never leave their parents' side for at least the first eight-month.”

While Charlie was busy explaining the last egg opened, this time with some kind of popping sound. This dragon had a bright red body that faded out to a perl blush colour in the tip of its wings. It didn’t have a fringe of spikes as usual for a Chinese Fireball but two intricate curled golden horns starting right over sparkly fire opal coloured bludgeoning eyes with golden pupils. Differently to its two siblings it didn’t try to curl around one of them but lied on the ground between them. It’s red tail intertwined with the pale dragon curled around Charlie and snout to snout with the red one at Hermione’s feet.

As much as he knew that these three shouldn’t exist and meant trouble in a triple he had to admit one thing. The creatures around him were stunningly beautiful and Hermione, with her hair wild from the fighting and her eyes wide from wonder, was the most stunning of them all.

———

When the dust of their raid had settled, Hermione had tried to use all the power she had to ensure their three little dragon hatchlings would have everything they’d need to recover from their traumatic surroundings while in egg form. But that proved to be way more complicated than expected. The British laws against breeding and keeping dragons in a private setting were impenetrable. So she tried to argue it as a working case from the Ministry, but since they were hybrids the only thing the British law provided for them, was to be put down as soon as possible. 

AS most people Charlie wouldn’t have called Hermione the motherly type if asked, but he had to admit that she gave every dragon mother he had ever witnessed a run for their magic in terms of protecting their little ones.

He asked her about it before she left for  _ the deciding meeting _ as she had started to call it and she had just shrugged. “Those three have decided to place their trust in us and I’ll be damned if I give up without a fight. This whole show is ridiculous.” and with her hair wild and her magic crackling she had stormed off to THE meeting. 

Too bad she had forgotten what Charlie hat told her about Fireballs from the start and what they had experienced more than once by now, their little dragon kids wouldn’t let them out of their sight, and that meant Charlie and Hermione were not to split up. The second Hermione rounded the corner of the Ministry hallway they were in, the troublesome three, as they had started to call them, split up in something that looked like a well-trained manoeuvre, the first followed Hermione to shush her back, while the second encouraged Charlie to follow her, by nipping at his legs and the third travelled form one to the other as if to control their progress. 

It had never gone further than that so far, but Charlie was a bit worried about what would happen if they tried to leave each other side for longer than a quick bathroom break. Best not to test it, before the Ministry hasn’t given the ok, for them to keep the dragons.

The meeting was a long dull marathon of people explaining why there was no way the three hybrids - they never called them anything else - had to be put down. They all stretched how sad it was, but inevitable nevertheless. Charlie was sick of it after three minutes and considered killing everyone involved after ten. But Hermione was so calm it sent cold showers down his back if he looked at her for too long. Not that he would ever admit it, but this was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen and he worked with dragons.

As longer the discussion went on and as longer Hermione kept quiet as more nervous the participants started to become. It was a spectacle to watch, how - without a single word and only by raising an eyebrow, people stumbled over their own arguments and started to contradict them. With the single movement of cocking her head slightly to the left, one of the people involved declared something irrelevant for the case they first declared essential. And when she finally placed her chin on her folded hands everyone agreed that the best thing to do would be to send all five of them to the dragon reserve in Rumania, since they had the best facilities to accommodate them. 

With a satisfied nod, Hermione smiled at them and declared the meeting over. 

“Ok so best everyone gets to work so that Mr Weasley, the dragons and I can get started as soon as possible and in the meantime, I’ll focus on finding out what those hatchlings fed on because so far, we don’t have a clue.”

After that, the attendees couldn’t seem to leave the room fast enough while constantly sending worried glances to the three dragons sleeping beneath Charlies and Hermione's chairs.

“You really think that was necessary?” Charlie fought really hard to hold his grin out of his voice, but to no avail, “You do realise that dragons don’t feed for at least a week after they hatch right?”

“Of course I know that. But those idiots don’t! And if that means they process everything faster before realising what they were agreeing to because they are affright our little ones will eat them… Well, I’d call it a win-win situation.”

Hermione actually smirked at him and that combined with the mentioning of  _ our little ones  _ really didn’t help Charlie at all with the strange feeling in his stomach. This was not good!

———

If one would think international portkeying into a battlefield as disconcerting they should never try it while transporting three baby dragons! But since the French government for some reason didn’t like the idea of three hybrid hatchlings to be flown across their country a particularly good idea - and neither did any of the other states of the European Wizarding Union by that matter - a portkey was the only solution. 

Honestly, these things got so much easier if you didn’t stop to ask for permission and just did it but you probably could only get away with one dragon smuggling trip per life, Charlie had to admit, and he wouldn’t risk his troublesome three. So, a bit of reaching after landing on the arriving field of the reservoir was worth it.

Too bad all his co-workers were so damn curious and had been waiting for them because that means they saw it which consequently meant they would never let him live it down and still- The admiration he could see in every one of their eyes when they first saw their three was probably worth all the teasing in the world.

“Come on Charlie, we need to get the paperwork done and after that, I need a bath and a bed, I have been on my feed for twenty-seven hours at this point, could you just help me hurry this up a bit?”

For the first time since he had appeared at Hermione’s side in the dungeons of the creature blacketeer, he realised how tired she looked and how deep the rings under her eyes were.

“Of course, excuse me, Hermione, you must be knackered!” and without any thinking, he took her hand to lead the way and help her over the uneven ground. Her hand was warm and dry in his and so ensuring, he started to question who was giving security to whom. But he couldn’t deny that at this exact moment, with his three new dragon babies scurrying around his feet and Hermione’s hand in his, he felt invincible. Smiling to himself he looked up and saw an equally found look on Hermione’s face while she surveyed their little brood.

Her smile didn’t even waver once she noted: “You know those three will be trouble right?”

And Godric did he know, even back then, while he still had no idea what he was in for. So he just nodded and moved on to the next pressing thing.

“To fill out the paperwork, we will have to come up with names for all of them as well as a family name, since they don't have a lineage yet.” Charlie hated to name dragons, he never could get up with good ideas so he was a bit surprised when he saw Hermione’s eyes glinting after mentioning it.

“Well, I know just the names!”

———

“Hermione!? Will you tell me now what Semel, Bis and Ter means? Please!” 

They were finally settling into one of the rearing huts, that were meant for dragon handlers who had to hand-rear a hatchling for whichever reason. The hut looked mostly like the one Charlie stayed in up to this date, two small bedrooms with a little cot and a dresser in the back, separated by a functional bathroom with a toilet, a shower, and a sink he always hit his elbow on when using the toilet. The main room contained an old but comfy couch as well as a little kitchen in the front right corner and a table with four chairs to round it all up. I difference to his old hut had this one three fireplaces - one for each dragon - in front of the sofa and the most important difference of all, everything in here was fire proved. Sure it was expensive, that was the reason the usual huts didn’t have that feature, but while raising dragons it was indispensable one.

“Come on! I know Tribulatio means trouble, or at least I’m quite sure it does. But I’ve no clue about their first names. Don’t you think your dragon babies dad should know what the names of his own babies mean?”

Charlie tried to channel his best puppy eyes look, but if the laughing fit Hermione launched into was any indicator, it hadn’t worked quite as he had planned. And still, after Hermione had stopped choking on her own laughter she pointed on the red dragon that hatched first and said “Dear daddy Charlie, please let me introduce you to your firstborn-” just to tumble over with laughter once more. It took just enough time for Charlie to realise how much the laughter seemed to soften the hard edges in Hermione’s face that had become more distinct as longer the negotiations with the Ministry had gone on for. But then she took a deep breath and started again, this time only interrupted by a few little giggles.

“Dear dragon daddy, please let me introduce you to your children. First, we have Semel Tribulatio, one time trouble,” and she pointed again at the red dragon that had hatched first “the second born is Bis Tribulatio, two times trouble” and she pointed at the mostly white dragon “and last but of course not at all least we have Ter Tribulatio, three times trouble.” and she pointed at the dragon with the gradient colouring.

Now it was Charlie’s who was shaken by laughter. “You named our dragons one time, two times and three times trouble?”

It would take them only a few hours to realise how spot-on Hermione had been with her naming.

———

The moment of realisation came, as Hermione declared she'd go to bed and departed to the left one of the two bedrooms. Semel, Bis and Ter who had, up to that point slept quietly in their respective fireplace were on instant alert as the door closet behind Hermione. They rummaged the room for a few minutes until they seemingly deemed the time without her too long. Not that Charlie really could argue that point, even if he would have liked to, but it was quite disconcerting how much the idea of sleeping alone - as he always did - suddenly started to bother him. Something had built over the day.

There were the long silent looks while their marathon of meeting that had always said so much, he hadn’t had time to ponder while trying to rescue their dragons, there were the lingering touches of insurance whenever one of their interlocutors had something especially nasty, that had burned on his skin like the flame of a Fireball and there were that “we” that resulted in “our”, “we look out for our dragons” they had said it so often today, both of them, and still- Even the memory of that sentence send Charlie’s stomach on a roller coaster of doom.

It had only been a day, one single day together, but by the time Hermione announced that she would be going to bed Charlie knew he was lost. Sure, he had never died of loneliness or kicked people out of his bed if they found their way into it, but his dragons always were his main priority. But the fact, that Hermione apparently put the three little creatures above not only her own comfort but all her ambition in the Ministry - somehow he couldn’t shake the feeling that she had pulled too many strings today, to come out of it unscattered - something about that had made him question whether maybe she was the one person that would understand and with whom he could actually share his life. 

He was pulled out of his spiralling thoughts of self-reflection rather abruptly the second Bis and Ter had given up on gaining his attention and just tried to lift him up on his ears, while Semel was busy flaming the door to Hermione bedroom. Not that that would really harm the door, since it was fire approved, but when Hermione opened it to see what all the noise was about she nearly couldn’t dash out of the way soon enough to prevent herself ending like a roasted chicken.

“What the fuck is this Charlie?”

Apparently the danger of getting fried made Hermione's tongue a little looser than usual, or maybe it was the lack of sleep and all the stress of the day, be that as it might, Charlie was floored by it. Had he just realised a normal Hermione was all it took for him to fall than he had to admit a cursing Hermione in nothing but an oversized quidditch jersey was just too much. Too much perfect imperfection and quite frankly way too much sex appeal. He felt his cock twitching in approval, while she rose from the floor she had herself flung at to ditch the flames.

“I’m so sorry Hermione, are you ok?” Luckily his tongue seemed to remember common decency because all his eyes could seem to focus on was the hint of blue lace they had spotted while Hermione dived to safety. 

“I’m fine. Just wondering what's going on.” And wasn’t she just perfect? Nearly being roasted and not at all bothered about it?

“Um,” so much about his tongue. But to be fair her shirt had fallen off her shoulder right that moment, so who was he to blame? “I think it’s the parent thing.”

“The parent thing?” Hermione definitely didn’t sound impressed with him right then, and that bothered him enough to get at least some of his brain cells back to focus on what he was saying and not her long legs and bare feet. 

“Yes, the parent thing. Remember I told you Chinese Fireballs never let their parents out of sight? Looks to me like our brood has inherited that trait.” 

Hermione just groned. 

“I’m too tired for this shit. Can we discuss the rest in the morning? Just enlarge the sofa and I’ll sleep here with you for tonight.”

Charlie looked nervous at the sofa. Hermione’s idea did sound reasonable, but there was one thing.

“I don’t think that is a good idea.” He broke off, not really sure how to tell her this.

“Just spill it, Charlie, I want to sleep.”

“Oh okay, so, the thing is, I mean everything in here is spelt fireproofed right?”

Hermione’s eyes went wide, so she did see the problem, good this made things easier.

“Fire proofed charms react really bad with other magic being placed on them, why didn’t I think about that?” Charlie didn’t think this was a question she actually wanted to be answered, so he kept quiet and just looked at her. 

“Ok so no enlarging or transfiguring stuff or we will lose the fire improvement and after the little show with the door I prefer my bed not being flammable.” 

Charlie only nodded in agreement. He didn’t think their little ones would burn them on purpose, but- Wait, their little ones? He was really in deep here, wasn’t he?

“Ok, the only solution, for now, are you sleeping in my bed than. Come on I really need some sleep after that day.”

And that's how Charlie found himself in a way too small bed, with three little dragons perched at the dresser and a chair while trying to hide his raging hart on from Hermione, who had curled around him like a teddy bear with no hesitation at all and fell right asleep.

Well, shit!

  
  



End file.
